Basic Christianity
Jim Leffel, Instructor
Week Four
Why should I look to the Bible, anyway?
Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may
grow in respect to salvation. 1 Peter 2:2
The Bible is the most influential book in human history. It has been foundational
to western civilization (law, literature, music, art. . .). It has also been
the subject of more intense analysis and criticism than any other book in history.
Today, we have lots of questions about the Bible:
- Why should I believe what it says? Isn't the Bible just like all
other religious books? There are lots of sacred texts in the world. The Bible
is just the one that we're influenced by. Is the Bible unique among religious
writings?
- Isn't the Bible simply the writings of primitive men? Rudolph Bultmann
once said that "nobody who uses an electric light can believe in the
New Testament world of demons and spirits." Is the Bible full of errors?
- How can I possibly believe what it says in the Bible? Who could trust
that a book so old could be passed through the centuries without serious mistakes.
How do we even know what we're reading is what Jesus said? How did we get
the Bible?
- You know, the Bible means what ever you want it to mean. Look at
how differently people see the same passages. How do we interpret the Bible?
How is the Bible different from other sacred writings?
All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16
- The Bible claims to be revelation from God. It's interesting to note that
we can put the religious writings of the world into three basic categories:
- Mythology. The vast majority of the world's religions are based
on myth. This is true of nature religions especially. There are stories
passed from generation to generation about the origin of the tribal people,
the deities that animate nature and so on. There is not even a hint of
historical truth.
- Wisdom writings. Many Asian religions are based on the writings
of sages, or wise teachers. Hinduism has a mix of mythology and wisdom
writings in the Upanishads. Buddhism is the insights of Siddhartha and
those who came after him. Confucianism and Taoism are also based on the
insights of Confucius and Lao Tsu. They make no claim to final or absolute
truth. They speak of their experiences and understanding.
- Revelation. The revealed religions are Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
In the Jewish, Christian and Moslem scriptures, the claim is that God
revealed his message through human authors. They wrote scripture under
"divine inspiration." See, for example 1 Corinthians 14:37.
- Old Testament-based. It is interesting to note that the revealed
religions are all based on the Old Testament. There is no conflict
between the Old Testament and the Christian scripture, the New Testament
as we will see. However, the Moslem scripture, the Koran is very much
in conflict with the Old Testament. For example, it teaches that Abraham's
covenant son was not Isaac but Ishmael. So how could God be so confused?
At one point he says Isaac, then centuries later, he says it was Ishmael.
What are we to do? The Koran recognizes the authority of the Old Testament.
But it says that where it contradicts the Koran, it can be attributed
to Satan's work. This is called the doctrine of "abrogation."
Of course, the problem is how do we know where Satan has interfered?
Was it with the Old Testament, or was it the Koran?
- Historical. Revealed scripture is historical. That is, in contrast
to the non-historical nature of myth, it refers to God's action in history.
History is the medium through which God acts. And the truth of the scriptures
rests in it's historical reliability. We'll talk later about that.
- Prophecy. The center of revealed scripture is prophecy. Deuteronomy
18:9-22. Isaiah 41:21-23; 42:8,9; 44:6-8. The Old Testament points beyond
itself to a salvation that was to come. The New Testament lies concealed in
the Old and the Old is made clear in the New. We should note that the prophecies
of the Bible are not like other so-called prophecies, like the apocalyptic
visions of Nostradamus. These things make no clear historical reference and
have no way to interpret their meaning. Biblical prophecy makes clear historical
reference and the passages can be interpreted through regular tools of literary
interpretation (we'll talk about that later).
- Consider Isaiah 53, Daniel 9. . .
So clearly, the Bible is not like any other religious book. Those who try to
make it out to be mythology (Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth) or essentially
like mystical religions (New Age) simply aren't taking into consideration the
singularly unique nature of the Bible.
Why should I trust the Bible?
- Perhaps the biggest reason is confirmed fulfillment of prophecy.
Somehow we've got to draw some conclusions about these extraordinary texts.
How do you explain these texts?
- Continuity of the Bible. The Bible was written over a 1500 year period
by 40 different authors. These authors were from a wide variety of backgrounds,
cultures and historical situations. What is remarkable is that they have the
same message: the nature of God, human nature and the human dilemma. Perhaps
most remarkably, they are different threads that, spun together, paint an
extraordinarily unified picture.
- 1 Peter 1:10-12. Each author knew they were contributing in a unique
way to God's plan.
Other religious texts that were written over that long of time show substantial
discontinuity. Hindu scriptures are radically different from the Vedic era to
the Mahabarata.
- It's historically reliable. It is amazing that the Bible has withstood
centuries of serious historical scrutiny. Yet, we are unable to find a single
instance of clear historical inaccuracy.
- Many people just assume that the Bible is full of errors. This is not
so. But the assumption has been around for the past 100 years. Much of
our thinking about the Bible is based on the "historical-critical
method." This approach assumes that the Bible is wrong (myth, etc.)
unless it can be proven otherwise. So we take the Bible to be myth unless
we can corroborate biblical stories with ancient history.
- Ironically, during the past century archeology has come into its own
as a science. Archeologist are able now to give us a clearer picture of
the historical reliability of the Old and New Testaments. Things that
were once considered to by myth or historical inaccuracy are now acknowledged
as fact:
- E.g.: Ebla and Abraham and Sodom
- E.g.: Amarna Tablets and Jericho and Canaan in the 15th century
BC
We should also note that there is plenty of contemporary evidence for Jesus
outside of the Bible. For example:
- Tacitus, Annals 15:44. Jesus died under Pilate as a Roman criminal.
His followers believe him to have resurrected from the dead.
- Pliny the Younger, Letters 10:96. Affirms Jesus as a man and comments
on the early church.
- Josephus, Antiquities 18:3.2. Records Jesus as an historical figure
and states how the Jews thought about him.
- Mishnah. Jews considered Jesus to be a great teacher or a prophet.
- New Testament was written by careful chroniclers and eyewitnesses of the
events they record:
- Alleged contradictions. One of the most common things I hear people
saying is that the Bible is full of contradictions. To be honest, I haven't
yet found anyone who could produce one. This does not mean, of course, that
there aren't passages that we really need to think through. For example, the
best science used to say that the universe was eternal. Yet, the Bible says
it was created in six days. Now how can we reconcile that? First, we need
to see that science has changed its view based on more current data. But we
also need to recognize that the way we read the scripture may not be right.
We may need to take a closer look at some passages to see what kinds of interpretations
are plausible. The word "day" (yom) means both day and age.
Noted archeologist Nelson Glueck concluded toward the end of his long scholarly
career, ". . .in all my archeological investigations, I have never found
one artifact of antiquity that contradicts any statement of the word of God."
How did we get the Bible?
- Canonicity. You may be aware that there were many things written
by the Jews that were not included in the Torah (Old Testament) and many things
written by Christians that were not included in the New Testament. So how
did we get our Bible? This is the question about canonicity. Canon means measuring
stick, or standard of authority.
- Old Testament canon. Deciding on what should be included in the scripture
is based on authorship. Who wrote the document? For the Jews, that was settled
by whether or not it was written by a prophet. When it was clearly established
that a text was of prophetic origin, it was included in the canon. The Old
Testament canon was completed by 200 BC. At that time, Jews translated the
Torah from Hebrew to Greek. That translation, called the Septuagint, has the
same books that we have in the Old Testament. Other inspirational Jewish writings
were not included in the canon, because they did not have prophetic authorship.
Jewish historian Josephus makes it clear that there had not been a prophet
in Israel since Malachi.
The final word on the Old Testament canon came in 90 AD at the Council of Jamnia.
- New Testament canon. The criterion for texts to be included in the
New Testament was apostolic authorship. Letters written by the witnesses of
Jesus' resurrection, or those under their direct supervision were included
in the New Testament. When authorship was in question, the text was rejected.
Even letters that were orthodox theologically (Hermas, The Shepherd)
were widely read, but not included in the canon. The Council of Nicea, 325,
finally established the New Testament canon.
- Transmission of the text. This is an interesting and important thing
to think about. How do we know that the extraordinary prophecies of the Old
Testament were not just inserted by Christians? And how do we know that the
Bible we have today is the same as when it was written? Until recently, the
earliest copy we have of the Old Testament is dated to 1100 AD. That's nearly
1,500 years after the last even recorded in the Old Testament. Surely many
mistakes have corrupted the text since then, especially given the primitive
means of transcription in the days before the printing press or Xerox machine.
Actually, we have good reason to accept our Bible as a reliable copy of what
was originally written.
- Masoretic scribes. These copiers of the Old Testament had techniques that
insured that each scroll was identical to the old one. They knew the exact
number of words in each book; they knew the middle word in each book. Any
error what so ever meant that the scroll was to be burned and the scribe was
to start all over.
- Dead Sea scrolls. Found in 1947, these scrolls contain complete manuscripts
of the Old Testament, dated from between 200 BC to 70 AD. There is no significant
difference between these texts and the modern ones.
- We have very early copies of the New Testament letters. Part of the Gospel
of John was recovered in Egypt and is dated to 100 AD (Ryland's fragment).
Also, early church fathers quoted extensively from the New Testament. This
gives us additional data to show that the New Testament has not been corrupted.
- In assessing the manuscript evidence for the Bible, celebrated archeologist
Kathleen Kenyon wrote, "The interval between the date of the original
composition and the earliest extent evidence becomes so small as to be negligible,
and the last foundation for any doubt that the scriptures have come down to
us substantially as they were written has now been removed."
How do I study the Bible?
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not
need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15
The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,
and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
For many of us, reading the Bible is an overwhelming burden. The language and
content seem so far from what we're used to reading and thinking about. But
there are some basic resources and tools that make studying the Bible exciting
and life changing.
- Resources: Select a good study Bible in a modern translation.
Three axioms of interpretation:
[See the Grammatical Historical Hermeneutics
outline by Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt for more detail]
- Interpret literally. Take the normal, everyday meaning of the words.
Usually, the text "means what it says and says what it means." But
interpreting literally also means that we pay attention to genre, or
literary styles. The Bible is written in poetry, historical narrative, parable
and other literary forms. A literal interpretation must keep these genres
in mind.
- John 15:5. This does not mean that Jesus is a vine.
- Interpret historically. We must ask the question, "what did
this mean to the original readers?" Only then can we ask what it means
to us. Having an understanding of the historical setting is crucial in determining
the meaning of the passage. This is where significant misunderstand can come
in. We tend to read the Bible in light of our own culture, rather than in
light of the ancient world.
- 1 Corinthians 7:26 gives historical context to instructions about marriage,
divorce and related issues.
- Interpret Critically. This means that your interpretation must make
rational sense.
- Luke 14:26. "Hate your parents." But how is this consistent
with the command of Christ to love your parents, and honor your parents?
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17. "Pray without ceasing" would make it
difficult to survive.
There are eight principles that are a part of all literary interpretation.
They are more specific applications of the axioms we just discussed.
Eight hermeneutical principles
- Interpret in light of the context of the passage. You may have been
told that you can make Bible say anything you want. In one way this is true.
If we just lift verses out of their context, we can be very creative. But
if we follow this rule, we'll need to be more careful about how we look at
particular verses.
- 1 Peter 3:21. "Baptism now saves you." But what about the
rest of the verse?
- Interpret in the light of "progressive revelation." God
revealed his will to us over time. We must be aware of the period of time
we are dealing with before we conclude the meaning of a passage.
- Polygamy was openly practiced at points in the Old Testament. However,
it is specifically rejected in Matthew 19.
- Jews were responsible for living under the Law in the Old Testament
(Exodus 19:5). Yet Christians are told to not live under the Law (2 Corinthians
3:7; Galatians 5:1-5).
- Interpret in harmony with other scriptures. We can't make our interpretation
conflict with what other passages teach.
- Going back to the 1 Peter 3:21 example, those who teach salvation by
baptism need to be aware that it directly contradicts John 1:12; Ephesians
2:8,9; Romans 10:9.
- Interpret the unclear in light of the clear. Every important doctrine
is taught clearly and repeatedly in the Bible. There are some odd passages
which have an unclear meaning. Always interpret the unclear passages consistently
with well established ones. We must also keep in mind that some passages are
so vague that the meaning may never be known.
- 1 Corinthians 15:29. "Baptism for the dead."
- Interpret the meaning out of the passage, rather than reading into it.
That is what "exegesis" means.
- Consider Barclay's commentary on Mark 5. Most modern scholars interpret
things like demon possession as schizophrenia or epilepsy.
- Interpret the spirit, nor merely the letter. The literal meaning
of words can't be separated from the intent of the author.
- Proverb 15:1. "Gentle words turn away wrath." Yes, but this
isn't always true. It is a general truth.
- Proverb 22:6. "Train your child in the ways of the Lord and he
will not depart from the path." Again, this does not mean that kids
can't rebel. It just means that a parent has a lot of influence over their
children.
- Emphasize what the Bible emphasizes. This is where so many groups
and people go wrong. The importance of a passage is gauged in terms of what
is emphasized by the rest of scripture. Lots of people have gotten carried
away by the charismatic gifts. Yet the Bible doesn't seem all that concerned
about it. In fact, most of the biblical instruction has to do with chronic
misuse of the gifts.
- Interpret with dependence on the Holy Spirit.
- 1 John 2:27. The Bible is more than an academic book. It is God's word,
and we need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to teach us not only the
meaning of the passage, but what God is saying to us personally through
it. That's what Hebrews 4:12 is getting at also. Tragically, many great
theologians and Bible scholars know a great deal about the text, but very
little of the author.
Contact
Jim with a comment or a question
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